Mt. Monadnock’s peak was in the clouds as 86 triathletes scrambled up and down the slippery White Dot and White Cross trails on Saturday, Sept. 6, for the Monadnock Full Throttle Triathlon.
The race began at 9 a.m. with a half-mile swim in Thorndike Pond in Jaffrey. The dripping participants then biked the 11.2-mile route around the pond, ending up at the Monadnock Christian Ministries Campground for the final leg, a 5.3-mile hike up and down Monadnock’s fog-glazed summit. Finishing at the campground, participants were greeted by cheers and clanging cowbells.
“I tried not to slip on that last downhill,” said Travis Muhonen, who came in first in the race, with a time of one hour, 57 minutes and 25 seconds. Travis Salo, the second-place finisher at two hours, three minutes and 11 seconds, who was leading the race going into the hike, agreed that “the trail coming down was a little slippery.” But, he added, damp or not, “there’s no way you’re staying ahead of him on the mountain.”
“He wins it every year,” Salo laughed, referring to Muhonen. Both Travises said this is their fourth year doing the triathlon, though Salo crashed on the bike last year and wasn’t able to finish.
The first female finisher, Sarita Ojala, came in eighth overall with a time of two hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds.
Ashley Bertram, the race director and also its 10th place finisher, said a lot goes into organizing an event like this. “I start in, like, March,” she said, “but I always tell people it’s like planning a wedding, where you can’t do everything until basically the day before, day of.”
Bertram said this year she had about 65 volunteers to help keep things running on race day. “There’s a lot of delegating,” she said. After their kick to the finish, racers could get a massage from volunteer massage therapist, Winona Mayhew, or get a lunch cooked and served by volunteers.
Other volunteers included EMTs, volunteers to make sure everyone stays on course and gets down the mountain and volunteers to guide the bikers.
This is the race’s 10th year, and it has served as a fundraiser for the nonprofit Little Lambs International since it started in 2015. The race was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Little Lambs International is an orphanage in Guatemala and an outreach program of Hope Fellowship Church in Jaffrey. Josh Prather, the nonprofit’s president and the church’s associate pastor said, “it’s more than an orphanage, it’s a whole complex. The goal is to have it be self-sustaining with multiple homes at the site” where orphaned children “actually have families that they get plugged into,” said Prather. “We just feel like the model of plugging kids into a family unit is a much healthier way to help these kids adapt and work through some of the trauma and things that they’ve been through,” he said.
Prather stressed how important events like the triathlon are for keeping the orphanage running and enabling more volunteers to travel to assist in the construction of the complex. “This is huge to be able to help us accomplish that mission,” said Prather. “I’m super encouraged anytime people are willing to do something so physical and strenuous.”
Prather noted there are athletes who have participated in the triathlon every single year it has taken place. “They’re also extremely generous in how they support not only the triathlon but also the organization as a whole, and that means the world to all of us that are a part of this thing.”
Lars Sauvola has raced all 10 years. “I used to try to go for the win and now I’m just trying to hang on,” he joked. He placed third this year, coming in at two hours, five minutes and 44 seconds, though he won each of the race’s first six years. “But now the younger guys are much faster,” he added. “It’s a fun race, fun crowd and a good cause, and that’s why we do it.”
To learn more or get involved, visit www.littlelambsintl.org.